To the Editor: Dr Fontaine and colleagues1 reported that "overweight and obesity (among blacks)
may not decrease life expectancy until a body mass index (BMI) of approximately
32-33 for men and 37-38 for women is reached." I am concerned that may give
a false interpretation of the importance of BMI among blacks compared with
whites.

Reports from the follow-up of the Cancer Prevention Study
II2,3 found that that the age standardized death rates
for black women were substantially higher than for white women for all BMI
categories except at very high levels of BMI (>40). For men, the death rates
were also substantially higher across BMI categories for black men vs white
men.